New Delhi, May 15 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday castigated the Madhya Pradesh government for not taking action against policemen involved in the alleged custodial death of a 24-year-old man, and transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta asked the jurisdictional superintendent of police, CBI, to immediately direct registration of a case and ensure a fair, transparent and expeditious investigation into the custodial death of Deva Pardhi.
"The police officials found responsible for the custodial death shall be arrested forthwith and not later than a period of one month from today. The investigation shall be concluded within a period of 90 days from the date of the arrest of the accused," the bench said.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by the mother and aunt of Deva, challenging an order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that refused to transfer the probe to some other investigating agency and direct the release of the sole eye-witness to the "custodial torture", Gangaram Pardhi, on bail.
According to the plea, Deva was arrested in a theft case along with his uncle Gangaram, who remains in judicial custody.
The plea alleged that Deva was brutally tortured and killed by the police, who claimed the former died of a heart attack.
Representing the state of Madhya Pradesh, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati submitted that two police officers involved in the matter have been shifted to the police lines.
The top court said that while an FIR has been registered, not one of the police officers responsible for the death of the young man in custody has been arrested till date.
"It is also not disputed that Gangaram Pardhi, the sole witness to the custodial death of Deva Pardhi, expressed serious threat perception at the hands of police and prison officials.
"We are, therefore, convinced that this is a classic case warranting the invocation of the Latin maxim 'nemo judex in causa sua', which means 'no one should be a judge in his own cause'.
"The allegation of causing custodial death of Deva Pardhi is against the local police officers of Myana police station," the bench said.
The apex court said even the doctors who conducted the autopsy seemed to have been pressurised/influenced.
"We are constrained to observe that despite taking note of the large number of the injuries on the body of Deva Pardhi, the victim of custodial torture, the members of the medical board, which conducted post-mortem on his body, failed to express any opinion regarding the cause of death.
"This omission seems to be deliberate rather unintentional and appears to be a direct result of the influence being exercised by the local police officers.
"The involvement of police officers in the custodial death of Deva Pardhi is clearly borne out from the statement of the sole eye-witness, Gangaram Pardhi, and stands further corroborated during the magisterial inquiry," the bench said.
The top court said the victim's family tried to lodge an FIR immediately after the incident, but the local police prevented them from doing so.
It was only after a magisterial inquiry that the FIR was registered, wherein the offence of culpable homicide amounting to murder was omitted, the top court said.
"Nearly eight months have passed since the FIR was registered but till date, not a single accused has been arrested.
"These circumstances give rise to a clear inference that the investigation by the local police is not being carried out in a fair and transparent manner and there is an imminent possibility of the prosecution being subjugated by the accused if the investigation is left in the hands of the state police, who are apparently shielding their own fellow policemen owing to the camaraderie," the bench said.
"Therefore, we deem it fit and essential to direct that the investigation of the FIR shall forthwith be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation," it added.